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Re: Danny Granger taking part in full speed drills.

Why boo? That's awesome. Gotta use more legs on a shot that far away. Probably why PG figured he had an advantage.

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." - Albert Camus

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." - Voltaire"Everyone's values are defined by what they will tolerate when it is done to others." - William Greider

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Pacer Danny Granger, who has yet to play this season, is a step closer to returning.
Granger was suffering from knee tendinosis and received an injection in his left knee in November.

The team expected the former All-Star forward to miss three months of action.

Thursday, Granger took part in his first full contact practice with his team. He looked pretty comfortable moving around and he also beat George Hill and Paul George in a half court shooting contest.

"He had about 20 minutes of half court live action, his first real live action this whole period. This was his first day and I think he looked pretty good," said head coach Frank Vogel. "Weíre still hopeful he can get in some game action before the all-star break."

"It was great to see him back out there. He was a great passer today, maybe because we thought he was going to shoot the ball a lot and we tried to double-team him, but he was making a lot of great passes. To see him back out there moving really gives us high hopes," added guard George Hill.

Re: Danny Granger taking part in full speed drills.

What's funny is that Danny's team mates almost always have a higher opinion of him than most fans do. Reading George Hill talk about high hopes with Danny out there reminded me of that.

I was thinking about one of our posters (I can't remember who it was) that actually was at the airport with Brandon Rush over a summer and he was talking to him and asking who was the toughest person to guard & of course LeBron & Bryant were said but then he made it a point to tell him that Danny it the toughest player to guard every day in practice and that people really have no idea how good he is.

I can't wait for his return.

Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

Re: Danny Granger taking part in full speed drills.

What's funny is that Danny's team mates almost always have a higher opinion of him than most fans do. Reading George Hill talk about high hopes with Danny out there reminded me of that.

I was thinking about one of our posters (I can't remember who it was) that actually was at the airport with Brandon Rush over a summer and he was talking to him and asking who was the toughest person to guard & of course LeBron & Bryant were said but then he made it a point to tell him that Danny it the toughest player to guard every day in practice and that people really have no idea how good he is.

I can't wait for his return.

When I had the chance to talk with Brandon Rush the other summer for a while, the one thing he was unequivocal about was his opinion of Danny. He thought Danny was the best player he'd ever played with and had a ton of respect for him as both a player and a person.

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Re: Danny Granger taking part in full speed drills.

Danny is a damn good player, his impact last year was gigantic. The Pacers were 8.1 points worse on offense with him on the bench and allowed 3.6 more points per 48 minutes when he sat relative to when he was on the court. That's HUGE over the course of an entire season. In comparison Roy, who many considered our best player last season the team was +4.1 on offense and -.4 on defense. With Danny that's a net gain of almost 12 points per 48 minutes. Noone else on our team had nearly the same impact last season.

If Danny gets back to the level he played at post-ASB last season we're legitimate contenders. That's how good Danny can be.

We were quite good last season, even though West wasn't half the player he has been so far this season, Lance wasn't a quarter of the player he is today, and Paul was just an OK starter as opposed to a star player. Add Danny to those guys and we could have something special.

Once Danny is back to his typical level we probably have among the best 2-3-4-5 starting unit in the NBA on this side of Wade-Lebron-Bosh-insert random dude.

@ScottAgness: PG on Granger taking his $ in shootout: We didn’t forget about what Danny could do, but we didnt know he could do it at that level right now

I think we all will be very happy with Danny now that he's not the only "star" on the team, he's coming into a situation where i'm confident in saying that David and Paul are just as good or in Paul's case perhaps even better than he is. We always said during the dark ages that we needed either one guy clearly better than Danny for him to play Robin to, or two more guys at Danny's level before we talk about seriously contending. We may be at the point where we have both, a star who is better than Granger, and another guy who is at least as good as him as well.

Not to mention Lance looking like he could be a Dynamite sub and Mahinmi, whatever one thinks about him, being a massive upgrade to Amundson, and hopefully a rejuvenated Hansbrough (who has been playing much, much better as of late than he did early in the year or last season)

Now let's see Roy get his touch back (he's not there yet, but he's quietly put up 11.5/8.7 with 2.5 block and more importantly on 48 percent from the field in 28.7 mpg over the last 10, which is closer to where we need him to be) and we're really talking something special as a Pacers fan.

Re: Danny Granger taking part in full speed drills.

When I had the chance to talk with Brandon Rush the other summer for a while, the one thing he was unequivocal about was his opinion of Danny. He thought Danny was the best player he'd ever played with and had a ton of respect for him as both a player and a person.

It was striking given his general vibe of being a team malcontent.

Were you the poster who was with Brandon at the airport?

Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

Re: Danny Granger taking part in full speed drills.

Man, I forgot how much people jumped on me over that one. Things were more tense on the board back then.

The funny thing is that the chance encounter was all 100% true, and most of it (with the exception of PG failing to live up to his potential) was simply a reflection of Rush being on-point.

You know, he was actually even right about PG. PG didn't have the demeanor at that time to be an all-star. B-Rush said PG could probably change and boy has PG improved in that aspect. He's developing that killer instinct before our eyes.